Category: Planned Parenthood

When pro-life advocates claim that elective abortion unjustly takes the life of a defenseless human being, they are not saying they dislike abortion. They are saying it’s objectively wrong, regardless of how one feels about it.

If moral truths do not exist as a foundation for law, then law itself becomes merely a system of raw political power accountable to no one.

In this election, the issue of abortion is of paramount importance to everyone concerned about preserving innocent life. Watch this exchange in the third presidential debate, which took place this past Wednesday, October 19.

Hillary Clinton Is Wrong

Against this backdrop, we need to make several important points. First, we should note that doctors and research testify that partial-birth abortion never is medically necessary. Christy Lee Parker, a nurse with years of experience in the delivery room, affirms that

late-term abortions are sometimes referred to as post-viability abortions. That’s important because viability means the fetus is able to live outside the womb. So, at any time after 24 weeks gestation, which is considered the “point of viability,” a baby can be delivered to save the mother while also allowing the child a chance to live. During a late-term abortion, the child is still delivered, only it’s delivered dead rather than alive after the infant has been killed.

Second, partial birth-abortion itself is dangerous to the mother. Parker also declares,

Although the pregnancy is ended with the death of the fetus, the baby must still be delivered. In fact, in partial-birth abortions, the baby is delivered breech, which is difficult, painful, and puts the mother’s life at risk. So, when you hear that liberal talking point, where they like to ask, “What if the mother finds out that she could die during childbirth?” it’s important to know that a post-viability abortion isn’t going to prevent birth. In fact, birth is in the name—partial birth abortion. Only a c-section would prevent a vaginal birth, and the child doesn’t have to die for that.

Third, Donald Trump was absolutely right to say that “Hillary is saying in the ninth month you can take the baby and rip the baby out of the womb of the mother just prior to the birth of the baby.” This is exactly what partial-birth abortion does.

Finally, we should not miss the fact that Hillary Clinton is proud to defend Planned Parenthood (PP). According to Wikipedia,

PPFA [Planned Parenthood Federation of America] is the largest single provider of reproductive health services, including abortion, in the United States. In their 2014 Annual Report, PPFA reported seeing over 2.5 million patients in over 4 million clinical visits and performing a total of nearly 9.5 million discrete services including 324,000 abortions. The organization has a combined annual revenue of US$1.3 billion [1.3 billion US dollars], including roughly US$530 million in government funding such as Medicaid reimbursements.

Abortion Providers Exploit Women

We have discussed Planned Parenthood’s appalling and illegal activities in earlier posts, as well as the urgent need to defund this organization. Abortion providers, including PP, claim to be helpful to women. They aren’t. They exploit them.

Many features of abortion on demand make it a practice that should be regulated and ultimately stopped. In this brief article I want to highlight just one aspect of abortion that everyone should oppose—especially pro-choice advocates who claim to be defending women.

Abortion Kills Women

Abortion on demand—especially late term abortion—increases the likelihood of sex-selection abortions. Such an abortion occurs when a baby’s sex is the one not desired by the mother or other adults involved in the situation. Sex-selection abortions create a lopsided population ratio of boys to girls, with boys significantly outnumbering girls in cultures where it is practiced. While the practice is creating significant societal problems in various foreign countries, including China, sex-selection abortions do take place in the United States (also go here, here, and here). Incredibly, in 2012, the House of Representatives, which at the time was controlled by Democrats, voted down proposed legislation that would have banned the practice.

Unfortunately, federal funding of PP has continued, even though Republicans have had control of both the House and Senate for two years.

Democrats have accused Republicans of waging a “war on women,” yet abortion itself is a large part of the real war on women. Moreover, efforts to make abortion a safe procedure for women face resistance from these same Democrats. Thus, despite Republicans’ unwillingness hold PP accountable, Democrats’ rhetoric against Republicans rings hollow. Members of Barak Obama’s party aren’t really pro-choice, either; they want to force taxpayers to pay for a procedure they find objectionable (also go here and here).

Voters Have a Clear Choice

These facts should help the fog lift from the minds of any pro-lifers still struggling over this year’s election. Donald Trump should be applauded and supported for his clear statements on abortion—especially partial-birth abortion—during the third presidential debate. Donald Trump’s and Hillary Clinton’s statements make it abundantly clear how anyone calling himself or herself pro-life should vote in this year’s presidential race.

When the law is on your side, argue the law. When the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When neither the facts nor the law are on your side, make an ad hominem attack.
—Old Adage—

David Daleiden is the founder of the Center for Medical Progress [CMP], a 501(c)3 non-profit organization located in Irvine, California. According to the organization’s website,

The Center for Medical Progress is a group of citizen journalists dedicated to monitoring and reporting on medical ethics and advances. We are concerned about contemporary bioethical issues that impact human dignity, and we oppose any interventions, procedures, and experiments that exploit the unequal legal status of any class of human beings. We envision a world in which medical practice and biotechnology ally with and serve the goods of human nature and do not destroy, disfigure, or work against them.

Toward these ends, CMP conducted a sting operation in which it produced a series of undercover videos that exposed illegal activities conducted by Planned Parenthood. These activities included, but were not limited to, the sale of aborted babies’ bodies and body parts for profit. All the CMP videos are displayed and can be viewed on a web page provided by Alliance Defending Freedom. In this article, a summary of each video release is presented.

In the days, weeks, and months during which CMP released the videos, the mainstream media, for the most part, were either silent about the scandal, or they slanted their reporting in favor of Planned Parenthood. The following dates link to corresponding stories about lack of coverage or about biased reporting.

Despite the media’s silence, the recordings created a stir. One of the lines of defense used by Planned Parenthood [PP] was that the videos had been “deceptively edited” so as to present PP in a negative light. This was and is an empty accusation, one that prompted Media Research Center President Brent Bozell to criticize the selective editing in which network news organizations engage regularly. As CMP spokesman David Daleiden stated, “The fact is, CMP is exponentially more transparent than CNN or any mainstream network about our production decisions….”

A grand jury in Harris County, Texas, was convened to review the evidence raised by one of the CMP videos against a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic, but in the end the grand jury chose to indict CMP spokesman Daleiden. News of the indictments against Daleiden and another member of the CMP team came on January 25, 2016. Writing for lifenews.com, Steven Ertelt explains,

In the video, actors posing as representatives from a human biologics company meet with Farrell at the abortion-clinic headquarters of Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast in Houston to discuss a potential partnership to harvest fetal organs.

Daleiden also was charged, along with Sandra Merritt, with a felony—altering a government document to produce a counterfeit ID. If convicted, Daleiden could be sentenced to 20 years in prison. The grand jury offered no adverse consequences to Planned Parenthood.

Denying any wrongdoing, CMP responded, “The Center for Medical Progress uses the same undercover techniques that investigative journalists have used for decades in exercising our First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and of the press, and follows all applicable laws. We respect the processes of the Harris County District Attorney, and note that buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well. Planned Parenthood still cannot deny the admissions from their leadership about fetal organ sales captured on video for all the world to see.”

Live Action’s Lila Rose, a former colleague of Daleiden’s, said the CMP founder is a victim. She further said,

David Daleiden and his team have done a tremendous public service by exposing the horrific crimes against humanity that Planned Parenthood hides behind closed doors. CMP’s investigation forced Planned Parenthood, a tax-funded billion dollar corporation, to admit it was harvesting and selling aborted baby parts.

Rose went on to point out that the office of Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson

was asked months ago about recusing itself from this case because one of its prosecutors serves as a board member of the Planned Parenthood affiliate involved in the case. It is unacceptable that the office did not recuse itself to eliminate any and all questions of potential bias. A special prosecutor should be appointed now to review this entire investigation.

Lila Rose is right; one might readily question Ms. Anderson’s perspective in this case. Is she truly unbiased, or does she have an agenda? At the very least, conflict of interest questions can and should be raised. There’s more. Ms. Anderson (pictured above) also is being criticized for failing “to prosecute an abortionist known as the Kermit Gosnell of Houston.” Gosnell was a Philadelphia abortion doctor who was convicted of grisly practices at his clinic, including murdering three infants who had been born alive.

This sad episode tells us a great deal about the abortion lobby. It will seek to hide the truth by ignoring it, and when that doesn’t work, it will accuse pro-lifers everything in the book! Even so, the truth cannot cannot be ignored or denied forever. We must tell it and retell it. We no longer can sit comfortably on the sidelines saying nothing. If we fail to speak up, we become complicit in the ongoing practice of abortion.

Significantly, the indictments of Daleiden and Merritt came just three days after the 2016 March for Life in Washington, D.C. and the 43rd anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Despite the impending threat of horrific winter weather, the March for Life drew tens of thousands of mostly young people to the nation’s capital to take a stand for life. Their efforts, too, were largely ignored by the media.

Yet, the pro-life message obviously is getting through! It clearly has touched a nerve! Let’s not let up now!